Wednesday, August 28, 2013

A Slow Week in the Garden

Not too much is going on the the garden this week. I did remove the netting from apple tree and picked them all. Above is the melon patch. I picked the last melon from the vine.

Well technically it wasn't the last melon. I had small melons here and there. They hadn't formed well since the place hasn't been watered since out last rainstorm on August 9th. So it hasn't seen rain for almost three weeks and I had been carefully keeping the overhead watering away so the ripening melons wouldn't crack and they would be sweeter. But it did a job on the late forming melons. Not that it is a big issue. Late melons never really ripen correctly here. There just isn't the sun or the heat usually for them to ripen in September. So instead I optimized for the summer ripened melons. Today the vines all got ripped out. Though it kills me to see the little melons go into the compost. I just have to keep telling myself how tasteless they would be.

The melons made way for the spinach. I planted Giant Winter. I often do Space also, but I've decided Space is better for the spring and Giant is better for overwintering. So this year that is what I did. I don't know if I'll get fall spinach or not. Often it doesn't grow well here in the fall. Occasionally I'll get something. We will see. It is early still. And this bed gets better sun than most in the fall.

As I was pulling the melons I noticed my poor thyme plant. Since the melons were in the circle garden, it never got watered. The beans on the other side have been hand watered, but the herbs were ignored. Most can handle the lack of water for a while, but French thyme is rather fickle compared to my English thyme (which is fine). Oh well I hope it lives. I did plant it in another corner of the garden since I know it has this tendency to die. So I might have to replant it next year from my spare plant. But It might make a comeback.

I'm not sure whether my Thyme is French Thyme or English Thyme - presumably (since I live in England) the latter), but I know it is quite "fickle" - I find it hard to maintain any in good condition. It goes woody and loses its leaves very rapidly. I have taken to re-stocking every year with small plants bought from the Garden Centre or supermarket.

About Me

I've been gardening for almost three decades now, ever since my husband and I bought our first house. Every garden has been different. The first was small and the soil was almost pure sand. The second was larger and I had heavy clay. The third and current one which is just outside of Boston, is by far the largest even though the lot is by far the smallest. Since we bought the house new, we designed the landscaping ourselves, and the soil we added was fairly good. My challenge here is the location. We are so close to our neighbors that their houses can shade the garden.